Twitter Exercise

A have an aversion to Twitter.  It all began a little over a year ago when I chose Twitter as the social media I would use to work with during the Winter semester for my SI 500 project.  My project focused on how citizens in Mexico use Twitter to inform themselves about drug related violence, and negotiate their violent landscape.  I found that Twitter was a useful tool for people trying to avoid violent hotspots.  I also discovered that Twitter, and other social media outlets, were also being used by violent, clandestine organizations to promote themselves, terrorize people, and demonstrate their (violent) accomplishments.  By  the end of the semester I was psychologically exhausted, seeing graphic images of violence, and reading about people’s struggles to live their lives in an extremely violent landscape everyday.  When the project was over, I never used Twitter again.  I didn’t delete my account, but I simple ignored it.  There were too many tragic memories associated with it for me to comfortably use it.

Yet, time heals all wounds, or as my 9th grade history teacher used to say, “time wounds all heels.”  So when I learned that we were using Twitter for this weeks network building exercise, I was hesitant , but not completely against it.  After resetting my password, since I had forgotten it (maybe blocked it from my memory), the first thing I noticed were all of the connections I had made a year ago with organizations and news sources which focus on drug violence in Mexico.  But, I proceeded with the task at hand, and tried hard not to let the past color my current objective.  I see the advantage of using Twitter by librarians and information professionals.  In many ways, it is the same advantage it offers people trying to stay alive by avoiding violence in Mexico, its concise immediacy.  Information is succinctly and quickly exchanged on Twitter.  Librarians, who are charged with staying abreast of all of the latest trends in their field, can use Twitter to do so in a condensed manner.  If the subjects of tweets pique their interest, they can investigate the links or resources presented at a deeper level.  If the subject is not relevant to their professional needs, they can quickly move on.  The brevity of the tweets makes them a quick read.  In a sense tweets are similar to reading an academic article abstract, a synopsis.  Users can use Twitter to link to deeper meaning if needed, but it’s not mandatory.  Users can easily ignore uninteresting tweets.  The other advantage of Twitter is it’s social component.  Librarians can interact with their colleagues across the globe (theoretically, I didn’t come across to much international librarian camaraderie) with Twitter in quick little soundbites.  But, speaking of soundbites, that is one of the issues I have with Twitter.  In a world were media relies heavily on soundbites and taking quotes out of context, Twitter adds to this shallow propagation of information.  It is impossible to dig deeply into context on Twitter.  I think that this influences the persona Twitter users portray, with witty, quirky short descriptions of themselves.  It all just seems very shallow to me, at every level.  But I know I’m jaded.  If you don’t live in a place where walking to the corner store for a loaf bread can be deadly, do you really need a tweet about the latest trend in your profession?  Can’t you just as easily look up the latest articles and tools through your browser?  Can’t your friends and colleagues just send you text or email?  I know that Twitter wasn’t developed so that Mexicans can figure out when it’s safe to walk down the street, but after seeing how people use it do just that, everything else seems trivial.  I’m sorry Twitter, but your effective and immediate dissemination of important information ruined me from being able to use you professionally.  For now anyway.